Italian hostage begs for life after Iraq capture

Giuliana Sgrena, an Italian journalist held hostage in Iraq, has been seen begging for her life and appealing for foreign troops to withdraw in a tape released by insurgents today.

"I beg you, put an end to the occupation. I beg the Italian government and the Italian people to put pressure on the government to pull out," she said on the undated tape, holding her hands in front of her in supplication.

Sgrena, a reporter for Rome-based communist newspaper Il Manifesto, was seized in Baghdad on February 4 as she conducted interviews on the street near Baghdad University.

"I beg you to help me ... I beg my family to help me, and all those who stood with me to oppose the war and the occupation," she said, breaking down in tears.

Sgrena was dressed in a green shirt and appeared to be kneeling. It is not clear when or where the tape was filmed. She speaks in Italian and French, repeating the same pleas for help.

A label on the tape, written in red Arabic script, reads "Mujahadeen without borders".

"Everyone must withdraw from Iraq. No one should come to Iraq any longer because all foreigners, all Italians are considered enemies. Please do something for me," she says.

Sgrena's partner, Pierre Scolari, told Sky Italia: "I will join Giuliana and call for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, but not to save Giuliana's life, to save the Iraqi people who have much more need of it."

Sgrena is at least the eighth Italian to have been taken hostage in Iraq. Another journalist, Enzo Baldoni, was seized in August last year and later killed by his captors.

Two Italian aid workers were held for three weeks in September last year and then set free.

More than 120 foreigners have been taken hostage in Iraq over the past year and at least a third have been killed.